


Boston and St. John's

by urbaninja



Series: Conversations [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 19:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6252145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/urbaninja/pseuds/urbaninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A side-story to Conversations in a Fire Escape. </p><p>Neo arrived, but Roman had to leave. And so she must adjust on her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boston and St. John's

**Author's Note:**

> [I'd recommend reading this one first for a bit of context.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4388615/chapters/13655530)

_Girl don’t tell me that it’s morning_  
Can we keep the curtains drawn?  
I haven’t given you fair warning  
But our ship, she sails at dawn 

_And it’s true I must be going_  
But I swear I won’t be long  
There isn’t that much junction  
Between Boston and St. John’s  
But I’m a rover and I’m bound to sail away  
I’m a rover, can you love me anyway? 

\--

When Neo wakes the first time, Roman is sitting on the edge of the bed fully dressed. She’s pretty sure he’s talking to her, but she’s barely awake and nothing’s really sinking in. She rubs her eyes and makes to sit up but Roman stops her. 

“I’ll be back in a couple days, check with Junior if you need anything. You’ll be safe here,” he says quietly, before kissing her temple and standing to leave. Exhaustion sets in shortly after, and she drifts off again.

\--

The second time she wakes, Neo finds herself alone. She panics at first at the unfamiliar room before the events of the previous day drift back into focus. She’d arrived in Vale, sought out the Relief Effort, found Roman. And then what had happened? He hadn’t really left, had he? Surely that had been a dream? But there is no trace of him in the room, and he wouldn’t have left his hat or weapon behind, no matter what. 

The room itself is rather sparse, giving off the impression that Roman does not spend a lot of time there. Aside from the bed there is a wardrobe and a small desk with a chair. There are a few books on the desk, and some scattered papers, and that’s really the only obvious evidence that there’s an occupant. Neo gets up to investigate, and finds a note addressed to her in Roman’s handwriting.

She sinks into the chair, still wrapped in the blanket from the bed. She stares at the note without reading for a time, reveling in the fact that yesterday had really happened. Reading it also confirms that his leaving was not a dream, but brings up a lot of confusing information. Between his helping the relief effort and needing to go to Vacuo, the only thing she really understands is that he’ll be back in a few days and a promise to explain everything once he’s back.

But what is she supposed to do till then? 

The answer comes with a knock at the door. It’s Junior. They’ve met on occasion, but he was mostly Roman’s contact. More importantly, he’s brought food and Neo is suddenly aware of how hungry she is. 

Any further questions she has will have to come after breakfast.

\--

Junior doesn’t know sign language, so Neo has to resort to the slower method of writing her questions out on paper. She misses her scroll, and hopes she can get another one. Junior is thankfully patient.

-Where is Roman?-

“He’s in Vacuo. Pretty sure he left a note, but he’ll be back in about two days.”

-Why did he go there?-

“It’s a bit of a long story, but he’s getting supplies for us there. Like food and materials.”

-Why?- She underlines it to emphasize her insistence. 

Junior sighs, trying to find the right words. 

“He’s the only one who can. You know him; he’s got contacts, people in the underworld who can get us what we need without Atlas noticing. I found him after everything fell apart, he was on his own, scared. Ozpin and I, we kind of bullied him into it, but we needed him. He doesn’t like it being acknowledged, but honestly we would have been dead ages ago if he hadn’t agreed.”

He was scared? It puts the situation into a different context for Neo. She had assumed that he’d gone through something like her, getting captured and escaping before making his way back to Vale. To think he’d been here the whole time. She is both jealous and wishing that he was here, to explain himself.

-What am I supposed to do while he’s gone?- 

“He did tell me to look after you. Melanie and Miltia can clean you up, and then I guess, whatever you want. You’ve been through a lot; so don’t feel like you have to push yourself. But if you want to help out, feel free. There’s always a lot to do.” 

\--

Neo doesn’t recognize Melanie and Miltia until they appear at the door. Roman had always referred to them as “Junior’s girls”, in the fashion he always did when he didn’t want to remember a name. As such, Neo hadn’t paid them much attention either. And they aren’t wearing their flashy outfits either. 

Regardless, they introduce themselves and ask Neo if she wants a bath. Neo is suddenly aware of how long it’s been since she had one. She’s still wearing the clothes she was kidnapped in and hasn’t so much as looked in a mirror since arriving (she was far too focused on finding Roman, and Roman had been far too amazed to have her back to say anything). 

She was a mess and suddenly aware of it. Her expression seemed to indicate that yes, she did and the two girls lead her down the hall. Neo tries to get a sense of where they are, observation had always been an important skill, but nothing’s really sticking right now. She feels off, and hates it. Perhaps the bath will help.

The room is larger than she expected. Really, given the circumstances she anticipated a quick splash with some cold water, but there’s actually a tub and a chance to soak.

Melanie explains that Atlas hadn’t completely stripped them of everything and most of the essentials like water and electricity were still available. Really, the relief effort stood as a way to help those that had been hit the hardest by Atlas’s initial assault. And it helped to be a cover for the resistance, which was the huntsmen, huntresses, and other individuals determined to break Atlas’s control. 

Regardless, Neo is grateful. She sits in the tub for a long time, until the water turns cold and she’s wrinkly all over. She’s scrubbed all the dirt off of her and washed her hair several times. Even though the towel she uses to dry herself is worn, she still feels renewed. Melanie offers to help her brush her hair and Miltia has appeared with some new clothes.

They’re hardly the stylish suit she had before, more a simple tunic and skirt, but they’ll do. She’ll find a way to get new ones, since she and Roman had a look they had to maintain (and he seemed to have been able to manage it). The whole process is honestly exhausting, but worth it in the end. Neo feels more like herself. 

Communication is still difficult without sign language or a scroll, but she manages to indicate that she’d like to go back to her room. Eventually, Miltia catches on.

“We’ll, like, find you a scroll or a notebook or something,” she says as they make their way back. Neo nods her thanks. She prefers sign language, but it’s better than nothing. Though she can't help a skeptical feeling that they won't follow through. 

They stand in the doorway to Roman’s room and Melanie frowns. Evidently, he hasn’t allowed a lot of people near it, which doesn’t surprise Neo. He was always rather cagey about those things. 

“Let me change the sheets at least,” she says. “You did just have a bath.”

Indeed, the thought of lying back down on the bed doesn’t seem as pleasing now. And it’s something that Roman would probably never do on his own anyway. She agrees with a smile.

\--

After the sheets are changed and the whole room given a general cleaning up, Neo lay on the bed considering everything that she’d learned in the short time she’d been there. Melanie and Miltia had had other tasks to do, and while she felt better, Neo knew she wouldn’t be at her peak for a while. 

So instead, that led to thinking. 

One – the relief effort had a twofold existence. Helping the people of Vale and covering for the resistance. 

Two – Roman was apparently their unsung hero, collecting materials needed for both sides of the organization.

She needed more information. And lying around wasn’t going to help with that. 

\--

The problem with having a lack of information is that she doesn’t know where to start. Questions abound and no one is around to answer them, and Melanie, Miltia and Junior didn’t say where they could be found. The only place Neo really knew how to get to reliably was the bathroom, and she wasn’t sure how people would feel if she were wandering around. 

That was an odd sensation, considering she was a criminal by trade and being in places she shouldn’t was practically in the job description. But the slate has seemingly been wiped clean and everyone’s on even footing. Even if she were sneaking around, it would be for the sake of sneaking around. There was no benefit. She had no intention of selling the information out to Atlas. Not after everything.

Plucking up her courage, Neo headed into the hallway, arbitrarily chose a direction and headed out. It led her to the mess hall. That worked for her, since she was hungry anyway.

If getting to the mess hall was one thing, entering it was another. There were people milling about and children playing and it was an atmosphere that Neo was generally uncomfortable with. Under normal circumstances, she would move through this crowd unnoticed, picking pockets and stealing valuables. Now she would be asking them for help, and who knew how that would go. 

Instead she stood on the edge, looking for anyone familiar who could help her (which really was just Junior, Melanie or Miltia).

“Do you need help?” came a voice from behind her. Neo jumps and turns quickly, belatedly remembering that she didn’t have a weapon and that it probably wouldn’t be allowed here anyway. Instead, she found herself staring at a Rabbit faunus. She nods in spite of herself. The rabbit faunus smiles, and looks at her expectantly. 

Dust, Neo wishes she had a scroll right now. She hadn’t brought pen and paper either, so all that’s left is gesturing and trying to get across that she’s hungry and she needs to find Junior. It’s a mixture of sign language and pointing and hoping that it has some effect.

“You’re hungry, right? C’mon, I can help with that at least.” 

One out of two isn’t bad, and if she can find something write with, hopefully she can get her next point across. The faunus leads her to the line, chatting amiably with the servers before heading to a table. Neo feels like she has no choice but to follow. At least the food smells good.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name,” the faunus says, “I’m Velvet.” 

Neo isn’t sure how to respond. She gestures at her throat, trying to indicate that she can’t speak. It takes Velvet a minute to catch on and she looks horribly embarrassed. Neo waves her off; she’s used to it, and instead gestures again for something to write with or a scroll.

“I’m sorry,” Velvet says, as she opens her scroll, providing a text function. Neo hesitates before taking it, the scenario where she grabs it and runs going through her mind and the bizarre feeling that she’s going to reject it. She accepts it with a nod.

-Thank you for your help.  
I’m Neo.  
Do you know where Junior is?-

Velvet reads the scroll and nods. “I think he’s in his office. I’ll show you where that is after we eat. Did you just get here?”

-Yes. Last night.-

Neo doesn’t want to get into details right now and hopes Velvet doesn’t ask. Instead, a look of recognition dawns on her face. 

“I think I saw you last night. You were running for the fire escape. You must know Roman Torchwick, right?” 

Neo nods. Now maybe she can get some answers about him. If there’s any awkwardness about the fact that they were both formerly criminals, and enemies at that, it’s not brought up. It’s even weirder to think that he’s being brought up like this, in a positive way. Roman has to hate that, Neo thinks. He cared deeply about his reputation after all.

She’s about to type more on the scroll, and is trying to decide on which question to ask first, when another girl joins them.

“Hey Velvet, who’s your friend?”

“Oh, hi Coco. This is Neo, the girl who showed up last night. Neo, this is Coco.” 

“Love the hair,” Coco says and Neo smiles in spite of herself. She is rather fond of it. “Though, you worked with Torchwick, right?”

Neo nods again and types.

-Is that a bad thing?- 

Coco hesitates before shaking her head.

“With everything all mixed up, what happened before doesn’t really matter anymore. Plus without Roman, we wouldn’t eat, so no sense in treating him like a criminal anymore.”

Dust he must hate every minute of it and Neo cannot wait to tease him about this.

-Please. Tell me more.-

\--

The information she learns from Velvet and Coco is much the same as what she learned for Junior, but with a bit more detail. He’d been found by Junior and Ozpin, who convinced him to help out. Through his contacts, he’s been able to form a network that allows them to get materials and pass information without using the communications towers. He often goes on those missions with a few others (a faunus named Perry and some other former members of the White Fang, Velvet says and Neo feels a little more at ease. Perry and the boys would keep an eye on Roman).

Otherwise he keeps his distance, mostly spending time out on the fire escape and rarely speaking with anyone beyond Junior or Ozpin.

That makes sense to Neo. He wouldn’t want to get close to anyone; getting close to people tended to be a liability, unless they could take care of themselves. The downside to that was that Roman was a rather prickly person, and it took a while to get past all of that. 

Both Velvet and Coco speak vaguely admirably about him, Velvet more so than Coco. They’d like to think he’s reformed or had a change of heart, despite adamant protests that he’s just as bad as he’s ever been. All the more to tease Roman with, Neo supposes, though she has to admit she kind of likes this idea of a reluctant hero. It’s a way she’s never really viewed him before.

Unfortunately, the conversation ends quickly as Velvet has to get back to work and Neo has to surrender Velvet’s scroll back to her. 

“I think Junior’s in his office now,” Coco says. “I’ll take you there.”

Neo nods her thanks, especially as Velvet offers to take her plate and cutlery. She’s headed for the kitchen anyway. Neo follows Coco out into the hall.

Once they’re away from the kitchen, Coco turns to face Neo, a slightly challenging look on her face.

“Look, just so we’re square, I know who you are and what you and Torchwick are capable of.”

A smirk appears on Neo’s face. This is familiar; she knows how to deal with this. Coco returns the look. Neo inclines her head, asking what happens now.

“As we said, things are different now, and I won’t deny that Torchwick’s a big help. Just know, I’ll be keeping an eye on you, both of you. Put a toe out of line, and you deal with me.” 

Fair enough, Neo’s shrug suggests. She still doesn’t have enough information to figure out what her next move will be. And she wouldn’t act without Roman. That just wouldn’t be fair to him. 

“Glad we got that settled,” Coco says, before heading back down the hall. “But I still love the hair.”

\--

Junior is in his office, puzzling over some papers and grumbling. He looks up when Coco knocks and then indicates Neo, who steps into the office without much of an invitation. 

“Settling in alright?” Junior asks, after a decent moment of silence. He’s forgotten how difficult it can be for Neo to start a conversation. Neo nods, before picking up a pen and a piece of paper from the desk and writing.

-I need a scroll.-

It’s a simple demand. Junior nods and Neo has no doubt that he understands why. However, his hesitation lingers.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he says finally. “Thing is, resources are scarce as I’m sure you know by now. And scrolls are a little hard to come by, since we have to get them off the CCT network and onto our makeshift one.”

-I doubt I’ll be calling people. It would just make communicating easier.-

“I know, but there’s the risk of it being tracked regardless. And if you’re going to be helping Roman, we can’t have that happening.”

She grips the pen harder; frustrated but not enough that she can’t see the sense in Junior’s words. 

“Look, if you can be patient, I’ll try and hook you up, since it will be something you need. I wouldn’t be surprised if Roman’s working on it. Honestly, you showing up has really brightened his spirits.” 

That’s enough to give Neo pause. Had her absence really had such an effect on Roman? There was so much they needed to talk about and it frustrated her to no end that he wasn’t here. Not that she would let Junior know about that. He just got a look that suggested “Well no duh.”

\--

Neo wasn’t completely satisfied by the conversation with Junior but at least things were in motion. In the time being, however, she would need to find an alternate means of communication and missed being able to sign to Roman. It looked like paper and pen or borrowed scrolls were the only alternatives available to her. Unless she wanted an endless game of charades.

Melanie and Miltia had that covered, apparently. They were waiting for her back at Roman’s room.

“We, like, figured you might need this,” Miltia said, holding out a small notebook and a pen. 

Neo wasn’t sure how to respond. 

“You can, like, help us with the laundry or something,” Melanie added. “But we’ve all got to work together now, so like, this will make things easier.” 

Neo nodded. It seemed like a fair trade. But it was the unexpected kindness that got to her. She’d lived her life to this point facing the reality that the real world was cold and harsh and didn’t care about someone like her. She’s had to lie; cheat and steal just to survive. It seemed almost wrong, that now the world should start to care about her and show her kindness. Almost too late. But it was still there and she wasn’t sure how to deal with it. 

-Thank you.-

She scribbled inside the book. The girls nodded.

“We’ll come find you when it’s time to work,” they said. 

\--

Doing laundry is oddly satisfying. 

Maybe it’s because she has a task to accomplish. Maybe it’s because she’s interacting with others. But whatever the reason it’s satisfying and she feels good after it’s done. She can go to bed that night feeling accomplished. 

It also helps in getting to know her new surroundings, and getting a feel for them. The overwhelming kindness and sense that everyone needs to pull together is still uncomfortable though. And Neo can only wonder if she’ll ever lose that feeling. She’s still reluctant to trust others, or open up. She writes in the notebook when she needs to and never more than she needs to answer. Old habits die-hard. 

She ends up chatting with Velvet and Coco occasionally, the rabbit faunus happy to share her scroll. She prefers it, being able to type faster than she can write and not having to worry about a hard surface. Coco doesn’t approve, but there’s not much she can do. It’s friendly though, and Neo digs just as much. She has to admit, she likes Coco’s style. 

She shares meals with them, and Melanie and Miltia. Neo has never really had girl friends, has never had the chance to sit around a table to chat and gossip. While it’s mostly listening on her end, she doesn’t feel left out of the conversation. It’s enjoyable.

It almost makes her wonder if, had she lived a normal life, a life that didn’t involve crime, was this how it could have been? 

But then she thinks about her life to that point, and Roman, and the adventures they’d shared, and decides that no, it’s probably better the way it was.  
\--

Roman returns earlier than expected. Half a day earlier to be exact. Junior has very littler doubts as to why. 

Roman sticks to his routine. Brief report to Junior, briefer report to Ozpin and then it’s up to the fire escape where he hopes to whatever is out there that he hadn’t been dreaming a day and a half ago. 

Maybe the universe likes him a little bit because she’s sitting there staring up the clouds. He could almost cry with happiness.

Instead, he seats himself beside her. She doesn’t need any prompting to lean on him and they sit. At least for a time until Roman passes her his scroll. 

“So, you stay out of trouble while I was gone?”

-Of course. I can behave myself you know.-

“Just checking. You weren’t too bored?”

-I made some friends. More than can be said for you, Mr. Hero.-

“I have a reputation to uphold, thank you very much,” Roman replied, sardonically. “It’s not like I asked for it.”

-People still think of you that way. I kinda like it.- 

“You would. What have they been saying about me? Telling you I’ve gone legit?”

-Mostly that you’re a crotchety old hermit who insists he’s still a bad guy. -

“I am _not_ crotchety!”

Neo smirks.

-Old though. -

“ _Who_ have you even been talking to?’ 

-Just some friends.- 

He glares down at her, annoyed but in a playful sort of way. It’s how most of their conversations go. She sits up to look Roman in the eye.

-I’m glad you’re back. I missed you.-

“I missed you to.” For a moment it looks like he’s going to say more, but instead decides to kiss her and Neo doesn’t object.

Part of her wants to tell him about the past few days. The friendships she’s developed, the stink eye she gave team RWBY, the fact that she kind of likes it here. Another part wants to ask about his mission, and how she’s going to be involved. 

But all of that can wait. She doesn’t plan on going anywhere and Roman seems contractually obligated to stay (though whether that’s Ozpin and Junior’s influence or his own is hard to tell)

So for now, they can just be.

And maybe later she’ll drag him, unwillingly, reluctantly, to dinner in the mess hall.

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics from [Boston and St. John's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5UoU6clpVk) by Great Big Sea


End file.
